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Was Russia better off in 2021 than after the invasion of Ukraine. Was it better for upward mobility, health, openness of the economy and growth, and standards of living. Was the US perceived as a hegemon when it also lacked control of its own companies that preferred to invest elsewhere and ignored US workers for a long time. This report in the WSJ asks whether it is not true that not just Russia, but the US, the EU, China, India, other large nations faced a world order that was in many ways difficult, not to their liking, and in some ways posed risks for their countries. 

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WHO estimates $1 trillion in costs from mental health issues, from depression and anxiety disorders each year in the lost productivity for the global economy. The cost of mental health productivity loss is huge. Here a knowledgeable researcher and expert tells us that psychological avoidance makes things worse. If we are trying to squash discomfort hastily we are avoiding. It becomes a crutch says Luanna Marques, author of several books and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, a crutch that rather than alleviate anxiety exacerbates it. Understanding the patterns of avoidance its process is the first step. Science induced ways can help us sort this out. Reacting only makes things worse, it fuels the fire leading to even more problems like operating a pressure cooker without a valve. Replying hastily to an email that upsets us or raise our voices without considering the consequences. Retreating is an act of moving away or pulling back from anxiety inducing situations. This only tends to increase anxiety as the underlying situation is still there. Then there is Remaining which is sticking to the status quo to avoid the discomfort of change, such as clinging to a job or a relationship even when we know it is not good for us. Marques suggests three science based methods to fight all this, and fight psychological avoidance the powerful enemy. First Shifting by checking in with our thoughts, particularly when anxiety comes knocking. In these moments we often have black and white distorted thoughts when we are telling ourselves something is such and such. Shifting is taking off the dark, monochrome glasses and seeing the world in color again, says Marques. She asks one to challenge your thoughts, clean out your lenses. One says- I have a lot to bring to relationships, I have had successful relationships in the past. One can now sleep better at night and set you on a journey to follow what matters most to us. The opposite of avoiding she says is Approaching, which is not charging at your fears head-on, but taking a step that feels manageable. One asks oneself what is one small step I can take towards my fears and anxiety to overcome avoidance. Even the smallest step can rewire our brain. Aligning is living a values driven life, says Marques. The daily actions now align with what matters most to us- our values in life. In intense anxiety emotions not values dictate our actions. To lead a values driven life we need to first identify with our values, for health, family, work, or anything else. Then we dedicate time and effort to our values. In conclusion it is not about being fearless , but about not letting fear dictate our lives, says Marques in this excellent approach she has given. ...

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After the 2008 election of president Obama rural whites left the Democratic Party, Following the election of president Trump educated suburbanites left the Republican Party. These two trends have accelerated as seen in the 2018 U.S. Congressional elections. Democrats won in and around major cities, and Republicans won in rural and small town America. Democrats won 27 GOP Republican COngressional seats to win the majority. Republicans added 2 seats to their Senate majority.  The electorate is sharply divided in terms of education in a way that is regressive and not good for America, and in a way that has never happened before. Republicans share of of House districts with lowest shares of college education bachelors degrees increased from 44% in 1998 to 60% in 2018. Democrats share of House districts with the highest share of Bachelors degrees went up from 50% in 1998 to 81% in 2018. Much of the Democrats support from educated suburbanites comes from lopsided support from educated women. The result is that the Republican Party is trading faster growing counties for slower growing smaller counties and now has a base of older voters. The Democrats have to find a leader who can rally support from this new combination of educated suburbanites, younger voters, and minorities. And big issues are at stake. About 77% of people in recent polls now support a national health care insurance like than in the UK and Canada. Poor reading skills and reading comprehension in school tests show a need for greater investment  in education. Infrastructure investment is a big priority for a decade that has yet to be tackled directly. Of the 50 new Democrats in the House of Representatives 24 campaigned on a promise for a national health insurance like that in Canada or UK. The focus on economic issues would move the Democratic Party back to where it was in all the post war years till the distractions from cultural issues  in the last decade shifted its focus from its historical base support of working class voters. ...

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It took 25 years for the US to recover from the 1929 stock market disaster and the Great Depression. It took Japan 25 years to recover from the 1989 stock market collapse and the lost decades since. It is finally emerging from that period with a healthier economy and business structures. China faces a situation today of a struggling economy after years of excessively rapid growth that hurt the environment and climate and health. And the uncertainty that faced Japan after 1989 also faces China in 2024- growth is never linear over very long periods and has pull backs that could stretch for decades much too familiar for Japan. For India there are lessons to be learned from Japan's and China's experience. In environment not to risk polluting the environment as China experienced with breakneck unchecked growth, to be mindful of bringing up all sectors and parts of the population, and to manage growth so that the basic instability that resulted from excessive shift to China of manufacturing and deindustrialization in US that led to worsening trade and people to people relations between US and China is not repeated. ...

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Larry Fink thinks there has been for retirement "an historical shift from certainty to uncertainty," from security in the earlypost war years of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ to precarious living in the post Reagan era of "free to choose." It is mind boggling to grasp the idea that 4 in 10 Americans lack $400 in emergency funds for a health emergency. It has been hard to wrap my mind around such a fact. Are you in the same boat? Larry Fink CEO of Black Rock financial firm with half of its $10 trillion of funds in investment assigned to retirement has joined us. Fink says- "America needs an organized high level effort to ensure that future generations can live out their lives in dignity." He wants some hard conversations. And here are his initial thoughts- Create predictable income streams like pensions for all workers including lower paid or part-time workers.  Follow 20 states in setting up retirement systems to cover all workers, including gig and part time workers in lower paid income jobs. This covers a huge number of workers counted by the millions who perform the work that makes the country and the economy run. From workers in restaurants to hospitality workers, and in lower paid health care jobs, in help for the elderly, help for children in child care. Encourage employers to offer matching funds. ...

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In December 2023 job gains reported by the Labor Department for the US are 216,000 jobs, higher than November figure of 173,000. Unemployment is steady at 3.7%. In 2023 2.7 million jobs were created after 4.2 million jobs created in 2022. The pace exceeds that in the years before the pandemic and shows that the Biden administration's investments in manufacturing in the US, and in infrastructure, in science and technologies, are working. Of the world's advanced economies in OECD the US now leads, and its strong partnership with the EU, India, Vietnam and Japan, puts the US on a new trajectory of growth and improving the wellbeing of its people and partner nations.

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Business top management in Germany comes from the top 2-4% of Germany's population in education, wealth and upbringing in 2025. Sociologist Michael Hartmann, a professor at Darmstadt University of Technology, has found that for the last 100 years the top managers and boards of 400 largest German companies are made up mostly of sons of business executives and people with a advanced higher education background, that this has not changed much over that period.

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The Affordable Care Act subsidies are basically a band aid approach to a fundamentally broken health care system in the US, says Washington Post Editorial Board on Nov. 1, 2025. The 22 million ACA subsidies will cost $350 billion over 10 years. Democrats have the government shutdown over this issue of extending Obama ACA subsidies where enrolment increased in the covid and Biden years with generous subsidies. The Washington Post looks at how we got here since 1945, decisions made about employer insurance plans that created a patchwork of plans from private sector and other plans outside it with perverse incentives and inefficient subsidies. It calls the system stupid, and politicians looking to the next 2 year midterm elections wary of addressing the whole problem in the proper way for a system that will benefit all the people of the US.

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US Senator Lisa Murkowski gets $25 billion for rural hospitals and assistance for Alaska in One Big Beautiful Act 2025. She was the 50th vote for the Tax Cuts Bill in the US Senate, without her vote the bill would not pass. Senator John Thune worked hard to get her on board. At about 1.30 am in the wee hours she agreed to support it only after getting $25 billion for rural hospitals and special allocations for Alaska healthcare needs, and other benefits for Alaskans including $25 billion for the Coast Guard. Places are spread far out in Alaska and patients have to be flown in to Anchorage for care. Alaska is a different place for health care including needs of native tribes. Lisa Murkowski is a rare senator with a passion to serve Alaska, and her concerns for disadvantaged people.

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US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that she does not see an inflation problem as a result of Mr. Biden's increased spending in the trillions of dollars for the Families Plan. The Families Plan is to rebuild American infrastructure after decades of underinvestment, in addition to pandemic related spending. Yellen says the additional spending for the Families Plan is small relative to the size of the US economy. The $1.8 trillion Families Plan is for workers, students and American families. It addresses needs in education, health, and wellbeing and rebuilds the roads bridges and other infrastructure at every level in the economy.

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US health officials remain on high alert for one unfinished task of the fight against coronavirus- the unvaccinated people who could be a breeding ground for new variants of coronavirus. There is the danger that a new mutation of the virus in unvaccinated people could be more resistant to vaccines. This means everyone needs to get vaccinated, and one dose should be followed quickly with the second dose. One dose only has limited protection with strong level of antibodies resulting only after the second dose. In the US southern states such as Arkansas and Oklahoma lag behind in vaccination, and are seeing a large increase in cases.

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The Truss government UK budget in September 2022 does little for the most vulnerable populations in the cost of living crisis. It also fail to take any significant steps to build up energy supplies. Of all the governments in the G-7 countries France, Germany, Italy, Canada, it is the weakest when it comes to promoting social cohesion or taking action to promote both energy supplies and renewable energy for the transition during climate change. Spain has just introduced a wealth tax for the 1%. Nothing like this is seen here, instead the highest tax of 45% is scrapped at a time when the wealthiest are seen by most people in all the G-7 countries as the most able and even willing today after the pandemic to provide help to the vulnerable and weakest parts of the population. It is seen as delusional by some as it does not inspire much confidence in the financial markets and many in the Conservative party itself. It fails the test even Mr. Boris Johnson set himself of leveling up in Britain between the well off and the less well off in society which led to his election and the election of the Truss government with Johnsopn's support. ...

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Moderna has made the initial batches of doses of the vaccine for the variant of coronavirus including South African variant, and shipped these to the National Institutes of Health in the US. If the test results are positive the vaccine for variant could be given authorization by the third quarter of 2021. It is becoming crucial to stay ahead of variants developing from the coronavirus and pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, J&J, Astra Zeneca are working on the technology to tackle this.

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How homeowners leaning Republican not supporting climate change action, generally not opposed to fossil fuel use in Arizona, turned against utilities setting up plants to use gas for electricity. They did this because of the effects on seniors health of unhealthy air quality, plant location next to their homes, and the flagrant way utilities operated. With its sunny days and weather Arizona is suitably placed to generate more solar energy than the national average, instead it lags behind.

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The American Medical Association came out against the public option in President Obama's health care reform plan. The outpouring of comments on this article show that public opinion today seriously questions the actions of the AMA, and think that this is not in the best interests of the nation. Its the kind of outpouring of criticism that GM's old management received from readers fed up with the management of the Detroit automakers, before the GM bankruptcy. Out of the 26 most read or recommended comments on this article shown on the link to the article in the NYT, 25 were strongly critical of the AMA's position on health care, none were in favor, and one was critical of the insurance companies. The 25 that were strongly critical had a total of reader recommends of 6539 readers when they were totalled up for all 25 comments. Some of these comments were strongly critical and explained at length why. Some were from doctors who disassociated themselves from the AMA. One suggested that the American College of Physicians also represented doctors, and the AMA represented only one group of mostly older doctors who are against any change. The financial crisis and the election of a new President, the changes in the country since the last failed reform effort in 1993, the new mood of the country as it changes to its more frugal past, a new generation of doctors and a new generation of young people coming to the fore, all may mean that things are no longer the same, and actually very different. Are the people running the AMA, like the people who were running GM a short time ago, not able to see how they are perceived by the public? ...

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Peter Orszag's role in the healthcare debate and the formulation of health care policy proposals. One proposal of Orszag, who heads the Congressional Budget Office, is to set up a new agency with powers to cut spending and implement changes in Medicare. Says Orszag, "one of the reasons we have such disjointed and skewed incentives is that we have an excessively political process." At a recent meeting with House Democrats, one Congresswoman said her top priority is winning higher payments for oxygen suppliers, and Orszag was taken aback. For years officials have been trying to cut payments to oxygen and medical equipment suppliers, which are said to be inflated. When a new competitive bidding process was set to take effect last year, industry supporters in Congress were able to delay the plan, and these supporters are still fighting to block changes says the WSJ. Here is a 40 year old Orszag, with degrees from Princeton and London School of Economics, who got his early experience in the Clinton adminstration at age 24. He then followed this with a number of policy oriented jobs, ending with appointment to head CBO in 2007. And he faces the whole system of Congressmen from both parties beholden to interests in the healthcare industry, who provide the donations for them to finance their election campaigns. Dan Eggen describes this in the Washington Post, 7/21/2009. Max Baucus of Montana, and to some extent Grassley of Iowa, are senators from both parties who Eggen points out are beholden to the healthcare industry because of large donations they receive from the interests in the healthcare industry. These interests want to see their payments system protected. The further escalation in health care costs, which would make the whole healthcare system unaffordable even as it delivers poor results, can only be prevented by making cost control an exercize that is not influenced by healthcare industry donations. Jackie Calmes describes the huge hurdles in achieving a deficit neutral move to universal health care in the U.S. in the NYT 6/26/2009. See the link. The exchange between Grassley and Orszag on the issue of the $177 billion in savings needed from the payments to health insurers under the Medicare managed care plans- which allow seniors to obtain Medicare coverage outside the government run program -went as follows. These are dubbed overpayments by outside experts and efforts have been made to cut them in Congress. When Mr Grassley raised concerns about the impact of such cuts in a hearing, -and Grassley has opposed the cut for this overpayment to insurers- Orszag responded saying: "I very firmly believe that capitalism is not founded on excessively high subsidies to private firms. This is what this system delivers right now." ...

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U.S. president Trump set up a separate task force called the Great American Revival Industry Groups. He read each of the names out loud during his press conference on Monday, a list of about 200 industry leaders from all the main industry groups, many of whom he personally knows. The first meeting of this group met in a hour long call with about 35 participants.  Most of the leaders praised the strong action taken by the president. On the task of reopening the economy the participants told president Trump that current testing levels were inadequate for effectively reopening the economy.  This is the first of four calls the president plans to make and included leaders from banking, retail, hospitality,  and food industries. The tasks facing the task force are to provide advice on how to reopen the economy and how to respond to the economic damage.  The U.S. president decided to set up this task force after talking to his friends in the business world so that he could get the broadest possible range of advice and thinking. Dr. Fauci, the leading helth expert on the president's team along with Dr. Birx, said on April 14 that reopening would require testing and virus tracking that was efficient and reliable and that the U.S. was not there yet. U.S. has conducted about 3 million tests. Health experts say there should be millions of tests per day before people can return to work. ...

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Schools in the US are offering less healthy options for school lunches as there are fewer cafeteria workers and supplies are dwindling with delayed shipments and shortages.

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When so much of infrastructure healthcare and education still needs more funding, and when St Paul's Cathderal lacks essential funds for basic maintenance and is in danger of closing, the Greensill scandal shows how much reallocation of funds to infrastructure, health, and education to help workers, students and families is needed. How much the existing culture distorts allocation of capital in ways that are vital to the future of families, students and workers, and lobbying acts in ways that are against the national interest. Here the WSJ says the lobbying of David Cameron, former UK prime minister extended to getting access to funds for Greensill, a  company that operated in  supply chain finance, lobbying for funds from the emergency financing facility provided by the Bank of England. Treasury rejected 56 messages sent by Cameron to top British politicians over several months to have rules changed. Greensill went into bankruptcy in March 2021, stranding investors who had put in $10 billion. A parliamentary committee is now looking into this case of Greensill. The company was founded by an Australian Lex Greensill, and does little more than provide companies a cash advance to stretch out the time to pay bills. One question no parliamentary committee will ask is why when the needs for infrastructure, health and education are so great $10 billion in funds, public or private even go into something like supply finance that does so little for the country. This is an example of the kind of distortion in the uses of capital that has become commonplace today, creating societies and countries with poorly  funded infrastructure and essential services in the advanced countries of Europe and the US. ...

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US health care is not working. In UK and Canada the sytem is regulated in a way doctors and hospitals work togerhter to keep costs down. This is not happening in the US. insurers and doctors are pitted against each other and patients are in the middle. Insurers are also running about 70% of self funded employer plans that pay insurers a fee and are the responsibility of employers. Insurers then cut costs and do this for employers. Sel funded means employers pay cost of claims insurers merely get a fee. Patients are caught in the middle between Insurers and doctors/hospitals. The insurers cutting costs overbilling Medicare and skimping on payments, doctors trying to overcharge. Christopher Whaley, an associate professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health says- “We have a system of whack-a-mole, with providers trying to get paid and insurers trying to constrain costs—patients are caught in the middle,”  Obama exchanges to get people covered never thought through to come up with a better system and is a Band Aid. At some point the whole system ought to be scrapped and one built from scratch and designed to work so that hospitals and doctors provide best service at lower costs.   ...

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Jeremy Hunt, head of the Health Select Committee and Health Secretary 2012-2018, says Britain needs to take up mass contact tracing as its next national mission. Britain he says has passed 20,000 tests a day for coronavirus. America has passed 150,000 tests a day. Both more than South Korea. What is missing when compared to South Korea and Taiwan is mass contact tracing.  The app TraceTogether is not enough, as it was used by only 20% of Singapore's population. Only South Korea and Taiwan are able to open up the economy, have workplaces and life function close to normal through extensive testing and mass contact tracing, with feet on the ground. This is the only path that has worked with South Korea successfully out of the lockdown. This means "feet on the street." Making these calls requires skills, getting information, getting cooperation, offering guidance, and ensuring people isolate themselves after contact with an infected person. Sometimes it is by phone and sometimes in person wearing full PPE. They need to be sensitive enough in talking to someone feeling ill and to see how home isolation can be achieved, who else the coronavirus infected person or someone in the chain of contacts has been in contact with. Mr. Hunt says no effort should be spared in doing this as the millions of jobs in Britain, of people without work, the economy, and the need for light at the end of the tunnel of lockdowns, requires a way out. A huge task but a lot of impossible tasks are being tackled in the health services. The resources of Britain, every spare civil servant, every administrator not working, every one who can do this, needs to be enlisted to do this. The same task needs to be tackled in America, and in other countries as a national mission. ...

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About half of the people in a FES/ Bonn University report say they are fairly or very satisfied with German democracy. Skepticism about democracy is highest among people with less education and income. This is why the author of the study Handrych is concerned about social cohesion. As in the US with Biden the Greens Habeck and SPD's Scholz have to meet the challenge of social cohesion, a challenge put up by our times and the economic changes of the last few decades with the inequality of wealth. And the need for governance to serve the interests of all the people, not just a few that do well.

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In parts of Mexico sugary softdrinks are easier to access than clean tap water, says this report in DW.com. This is a problem that existed in Mexico for many years. Amy Guthrie in the WSJ August 28, 2013, described the problem in -Health Problem over Soda Flares in Mexico- which was shown in Lyrarc.com in 2013, showing the US, Chile, Mexico and Argentina with high consumption of sugary softdrinks and high rates of diseases related to this. Mexico's government has made efforts to increase awareness about the risks and dangers of overuse and Bloomberg philanthropy has made efforts to increase awareness. Yet the problem has persisted. The risks are high for countries such as India, China, Vietnam. One ad in Mexico City subways showed 20 ounce sugary softdrink bottle and asked "Would you take 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar?" Mexico passed the US in countries with high obesity rate over 100 million people in 2013. Higher all cause mortality was shown in a European study of 451,000 people for people drinking more than 2 glasses of sweetened softdrinks a day, with data collected between 1992-2000 and supporting public health campaigns limiting the use of such sweetened softdrinks. ...

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US law now supports turning back migrants at the border. Under public health policy Title 42 migrants are denied asylum, a federal appeals court ruling supporting this. It is also now supported by the Biden administration. It is a key tool used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to combat illegal border crossings. It also reduces one more area in which differences were mistakenly created between Republican and Democratic parties, that distracted from focus on much needed infrastructure and other priorities for the American people.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Friday that the state recorded 21,027 new covid cases surpassing the previous record of 19,942 set in January. Of 263,000 tested about 8% were positive- health officials say positivity rate doubled over 3 day period through Sunday.

William Lee, vp science at Helix, population-genomics company that does surveillance and testing, says Omicron will likely be the dominant strain in the US within a week. He says it is growing so much faster as a proportion of cases, than any previous variants.